Married... with Children

Al Bundy is a misanthropic women's shoe salesman with a miserable life. He hates his job, his wife is lazy, his son is dysfunctional (especially with women), and his daughter is dim-witted and promiscuous.

Storyline

Al Bundy is an unsuccessful middle aged shoe salesman with a miserable life and an equally dysfunctional family. He has a very attractive but lazy wife named Peggy who constantly nags him to death while throwing the little money he earns away on herself. He also has a very promiscuous teen aged daughter named Kelly who makes up in attractiveness what she lacks in IQ points, and a not so attractive but bright teen aged son named Bud who seems to think he is a ladies man. To add to Al's misery is his yuppie next door neighbors Marcy and Steve. Marcy and Steve eventually split up with Marcy keeping the house next door to the Bundys and Steve moving away to be a forest ranger. Later Marcy gets remarried to a gigolo named Jefferson who is the male version of Peggy. The sitcom revolves around Al's never ending attempts to better his life which always leads him right back to where he started.Written by
Brandon Johns

Technical Specs

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The series makes several references to the movie Deliverance (1972). Although Ed O'Neill (Al Bundy) was not actually in the movie, it has been reported so many times, that he often doesn't dispute it. See more »

Quotes

Al:
I hate those complaint boxes they put in at the mall. A woman comes in the shoe store today, so huge she's protected by 'Green Peace', and ask for a size-4 shoe. So I asked her if she wants to eat them there or take them home, and she has the nerve to complain about my performance.
Peggy:
Honey, I complain about youre performance all the time... you don't care. Sometimes you don't even wake up.
Al:
Well unlike sex with you Peg, this is important to me.
See more »

Crazy Credits

With rare exceptions, the end credits are played over a still of Peggy and Al (looking disgusted) sitting on the couch. See more »

Alternate Versions

For the most part the episodes on the North American DVD box sets are the unedited versions as seen on the FOX network, however there are some instances where scenes have been cut or the syndicated version of an episode was placed on the DVD instead. This is most noticeable in Season 4, where 7 of the 22 episodes have some type of edit. The German region 2 Season 4 set uses non-syndicated versions of these episodes, although the Dutch and French sets have the syndicated versions. The DVD box sets from Season 3 onward do not feature the original "Love and Marriage" theme song in the opening sequence. This was done because Sony was unable to obtain the rights to the theme song. It is highly unlikely that the theme song will return in any yet to be released DVD box set. The replaced theme song was the cause of the syndicated versions of seven episodes in Season 4, as Sony falsely claimed did not have access to the original masters of these episodes, and had to use syndicated prints. This is proved wrong since they used the originals from Season 4 in "Most Outrageous" DVDs that contained some episodes. As the end credits had to be altered to credit the new theme song, certain scenes that originally ran during the end credits had to be replaced with a freeze frame. In most episodes affected, the original audio plays in the background while you see a freeze frame, however in a few cases a freeze frame is used, but the original audio is replaced with the theme song. The new releases by Mill Creek Entertainment have restored the episodes as they originally aired. See more »

User Reviews

"Married with Children" is the kind of show that does nothing for civilization and has no moral value...yet I got some of the biggest laughs in TV history from this show. It is still one of my all-time favorites. I even enjoy watching the repeats over and over again. That's when you know a show is great.

As for Al Bundy, could they have created a funnier TV character than him? He is one of my favorite TV characters, and I sometimes try to imitate him. My friends even jokingly thought of starting a "No Ma'am" group of our own. Speaking of "No Ma'am" one of my favorite episodes is the one where Al starts his own Church, in order to avoid paying taxes. He rants and raves like the stereotypical evangelist, only he has two scantily-clad women by his side. Then Marcy and her feminist group come marching in, showing everyone pictures of Al and Peggy on a romantic date. Everyone gasps. In response, Al imitates Jimmy Swaggart by shedding tears and screaming out, "I have sinned." That was genius! When they one day show a retrospective of the funniest moments in TV history, that scene should definitely be shown. Ed O'Neill plays the character so perfectly, and I was amazed to see that he's actually nothing like his character in real life. He's a very nice, soft-spoken guy. Yet he couldn't be any more convincing as that character. Al Bundy will be his legacy!

The supporting cast is great. David Faustino, Christina Applegate, Katey Sagal, David Garrison and Ted McGinley are all very talented. But I could never understand why Bud had trouble getting girls. Faustino's a pretty good-looking guy. Acting-wise, he couldn't be any better, but they could've picked a less attractive actor to have his persona be more convincing.

Yes, the show may appear to be misogynistic. All the female characters are either airheads, whiny housewives or overweight. But I think in a way it's poking fun at misogynism. I don't think the show ever glamourizes the act of misogynism. Just look at the male characters. They're a bunch of beer-drinking slobs. Would you want to follow their philosophies on life? But I do admit, I enjoy the presence of many scantily clad babes on each episode. Hey...if women want to make a show where macho guys appear on every episode in thongs, be my guest! I won't watch it, but it doesn't offend me. If women find "MWC" offensive, don't watch it! You have a remote--use it!

There are so many memorable moments on the show that I will have to take up this whole message board to jot them all down. I will just mention two:

When Peggy painted the bathroom pink and made it girly-looking, and Al was frightened at the sight of it. So when the inspectors came to check it out, Al empties a bag with five sandwiches inside. The song "Bad to the Bone" plays as Al scarfs down every sandwich, drowning each one with hot sauce. He grabs a newspaper, tucks it under his arm and runs straight to the bathroom. The inspectors come running out, the toilet flushes and Al leaves the bathroom proudly.

When Al accidentally got circumsized. He would be afraid to look at anything even mildly stimulating because he was afraid a stitch would break.

But as much as I liked the show, I felt good that it was cancelled. Because the last season reeked!!! I don't know what went wrong, but the writing was drab and contrived, the acting was flat--Al didn't seem like Al anymore! He was actually turning into sort of a nice guy! The show lost all its energy. But for all the previous seasons, I absolutely adored the show. And I regard it as a classic!

My score: 9 (out of 10)

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